WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) went on the attack on Tuesday in a ten-minute rant to reporters about everything from Russia and Ukraine to COVID-19 and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
"One of the many problems with how the Biden administration has handled this war is throughout they failed to set clear objectives that were grounded in U.S. national security," said Cruz. "The war in Ukraine is infuriating for many reasons, but most fundamentally because it was utterly preventable. Joe Biden caused the war in Ukraine."
Cruz said that in 2019 and again in 2020, he introduced a bill that would stop the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Putin halted construction of Nord Stream 2 literally the day that President [Donald] Trump signed my sanctions into law. Putin resumed construction of Nord Stream 2 four days after Joe Biden became president. And it did so because Biden telegraphed weakness to Putin. That weakness was subsequently memorialized in Biden's formally waving sanctions on Russia and on Putin and allowing Putin to complete the Nord Stream 2 pipeline."
The sanctions are still in place, signed into law under Trump's administration. Biden has argued that the pipeline is a "bad deal for Europe." He went so far as to implement additional sanctions on the pipeline.
"Yesterday, after further close consultations between our two governments, Germany announced that it would halt certification of the pipeline," the White House statement read last week. "Today, I have directed my administration to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG and its corporate officers. These steps are another piece of our initial tranche of sanctions in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine. As I have made clear, we will not hesitate to take further steps if Russia continues to escalate."
Cruz complained that Democrats voted against his bill to impose sanctions again, refusing it to come to the floor. In reality, Democrats had their own bill sponsored by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), which goes beyond just Nord Stream 2 and imposes sanctions on "top Russian government and military officials and banking institutions if Moscow engages in hostilities against Ukraine," Reuters reported.
Even Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), who co-sponsored the bill with Cruz, ultimately withdrew her support, saying it "risked breaking unity in Washington and in Europe over Russian aggression against Ukraine." She specifically cited Germany, which wants access to the pipeline.
Cruz's bill also added a poisoned pill that would have allowed Congress to overturn any presidential waiver of sanctions in the future. The Menendez version of the bill doesn't have a date for the vote yet.
Cruz implied that the U.S. "is now mired in a longstanding war" as a result of the vote last month on the sanctions bill. The war with Ukraine has been going on for a year this month.
The Texas senator went on to compare the Ukraine flag to a COVID-19 mask, saying that it was nothing but "virtue signaling" by Democrats who don't actually care about Ukraine. Republicans have consistently been the ones to oppose the support of Ukraine in the war.
As the Washington Post reported last month, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) threatened that Ukraine could no longer count on American support. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) has argued that the money given to Ukraine should be scrutinized. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is pushing to cut off the Ukraine funding entirely, saying that issues like the southern border are more important.
